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"This Is It"
Single by Kenny Loggins
from the album Keep the Fire
B-side	"Will It Last"
Released	October 1979
Genre	Soft rock pop
Length	3:36 (single version) 3:57 (album version)
Label	Columbia
Songwriter(s)	Kenny Loggins Michael McDonald
Producer(s)	Tom Dowd
Kenny Loggins singles chronology
"Easy Driver" (1979) "This Is It" (1979) "Keep the Fire" (1980)

"This Is It" is a song by American musician Kenny Loggins. It was released in 1979 as the lead single from his 1979 album Keep the Fire. It reached number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 17 on the Adult Contemporary chart. "This Is It" was also successful on the Hot Soul Singles chart, reaching number 19; it was one of two entries on this chart.

The song features additional vocals by Michael McDonald, who co-wrote the song with Loggins. The song won a Grammy Award in 1981 for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

NBC Sports used the song as theme music for its coverage of the NCAA men's basketball tournament in 1980 and 1981.

WPVI-TV in Philadelphia had a local weekend program of the same name and had the song as its theme throughout the 1980s.

Background and writing

At one point in the song's evolution, its melody was underway, but the lyrics were incomplete. Loggins moved it forward after a visit to his ailing father, who had undergone a series of surgeries for vascular problems stemming from small strokes and was discouraged at the prospect of another. His perspective on the lyrics then changed: "'I've got it,' I announced to Michael, "it's not a love song. It's a life song."

Chart performance

References

1. "VH1's 40 Most Softsational Soft-Rock Songs". Stereogum. SpinMedia. May 31, 2007. Retrieved July 31, 2016.
2. Breithaupt, Don; Breithaupt, Jeff (July 17, 2000). "The Six Million Dollar Tan: West Coast Pop". Night Moves - Pop Music in the Late 70s. St. Martin's Griffin. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-312-19821-3.
3. Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942–2004. Record Research. p. 358.
4. "September 1999 (This Is It)". kennyloggins.com. Archived from the original on May 6, 2006. Retrieved November 16, 2015.
5. "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. Retrieved 2016-10-15.
6. "Nederlandse Top 40 – Kenny Loggins" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40.
7. "Kenny Loggins – This Is It". Top 40 Singles.
8. Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961-2001. Record Research. p. 148.
9. "Top 100 1980-02-09". Cashbox Magazine. Retrieved 2015-05-18.
10. "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. Retrieved 2016-10-15.
11. Billboard December 20, 1980: TIA-10
12. "Top 100 Year End Charts: 1980". Cashbox Magazine. Retrieved 2015-07-22.

External links

• Kenny Loggins - This Is It on YouTube

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• 1979 songs
• 1979 singles
• Kenny Loggins songs
• Songs written by Kenny Loggins
• Songs written by Michael McDonald (musician)
• Columbia Records singles
• Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance
• Song recordings produced by Tom Dowd
• 1970s rock song stubs